CNN rode a “Trump bump” during President Donald Trump’s first administration, but the network’s audience has fallen sharply in the second go-round as viewing habits and the cable-news ecosystem keep shifting.
A new analysis found that CNN has lost more than 40% of its total-day and primetime audience when comparing 2017 (the first year of Trump’s first term) with 2025 (the first year of his second term), after the network’s Trump-era spike helped turn political coverage into a nightly draw.
The ratings lift began during the 2016 campaign—when CNN drew heat for wall-to-wall Trump coverage, including extended live shots of events—then carried into 2017 as the network leaned into combative, anti-Trump programming that made figures like then-White House correspondent Jim Acosta a household name.
By 2025, CNN averaged 573,000 viewers in primetime and 432,000 across total day, according to Nielsen-based reporting, as the network also tries to reposition for a post-cable world with job cuts and a renewed push into streaming and digital products.
From Fox News:
CNN’s primetime lineup averaged 1 million viewers, and the network managed a total daily audience of 775,000 despite being regularly being mocked as “fake news” by the president himself.
During that time, the term “Trump bump” emerged in the cable news industry and CNN. CNN’s end-of-year press release touted “a ratings milestone,” and Axios reported that Trump delivered a “ratings boom.”
Fast-forward to 2025 and CNN looks remarkably different. Primetime hosts Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo are long gone, Acosta is no longer with the network, and CNN has seen a variety of leadership changes.
Then-CNN President Jeff Zucker, who oversaw the pivot from a just-the-facts news network to anti-Trump opinion programming, was forced out ahead of a long-planned merger that put the network in the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Zucker’s first successor, Chris Licht, attempted to tamp down the partisanship to no avail, and was replaced by Mark Thompson in 2023. CNN is for sale, again, and only Anderson Cooper remains from the 2017 primetime lineup.
The results have not been pretty, and CNN’s current leadership has been unable to capitalize on the second Trump presidency.
In 2025, CNN’s primetime viewership plummeted to 573,000 and its total day audience was only 432,000. From 2017 through 2025, CNN saw 45% of its primetime audience flee and lost 44% of total day viewers.
More over at Fox News:
CNN lost 45% of its primetime audience from 2017 through 2025. https://t.co/3E6MQTX6nN
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) February 12, 2026